The qualities we have, make us so ridiculous as those which we affect.

We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others.

It is necessary, in order to know things well, to know the particulars of them; and these, being infinite, make our knowledge eversuperficial and imperfect.

Avarice is more opposite to economy than liberality.

The most brilliant fortunes are often not worth the littleness required to gain them.

Customary use of artifice is the sign of a small mind, and it almost always happens that he who uses it to cover one spot uncovers himself in another.

Fortune cures us of many faults that reason could not.